The amazing amount of data available through sites like Google, Facebook and Twitter reveal a series of trends that bode well for President Barack Obama, whose adroit use of social media was one of the keys to his election in 2008.

Four years later, Obama is doing it again — and the exponential growth of social media over that time span means its impact could be greater than ever.

Just look at the political conventions. Twitter data showed that Obama’s Sept. 6 speech set a record for the most tweets in a single minute of any political event. In fact, his total — 52,756 in the minute after his speech — transcended politics and reached a plateau with Usain Bolt following his final race in the 2012 Olympics.

Romney, by comparison, drew 14,289 tweets per minute during his speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. That total lagged even former President Bill Clinton, whose speech in Charlotte racked up 22,087 tweets per minute.

What’s it mean? Perhaps nothing. Pollsters dismiss Twitter as an election barometer, noting that it tends to skew young, activist and Democratic. And while growth of social media has been explosive, only about 15 percent of the U.S. population uses Twitter — making it a poor sample for the general population.

But candidates ignore social media at their own peril. Both Obama and Romney are pouring massive amounts of time and money into their social media campaigns, suggesting that the numbers do matter.

“A candidate who can embrace new technology conveys symbolically that they understand how the country is changing and that they are on the cutting edge,” Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, told the Financial Times.

The results are mixed on Facebook. Obama’s page on the popular site counted more than 28.5 million “likes” as of Tuesday afternoon, compared to 6.7 million for Romney.

But an analysis by Compass Labs, a social networking firm, revealed that while Obama may have more Facebook fans, Romney’s smaller number is more passionate.

Zac McCrary, a Democratic political consultant for Anzalone Liszt Research in Montgomery, said Obama's big advantage on Facebook and Twitter demonstrates a more organized and enthusiastic campaign than that of his rival.

"Given the hostility toward the President among the Republican base, one would expect any Republican nominee to be a rock-star among the right-wing," said McCrary. "But Romney is generally being met with a shrug among conservative activists."

Twitter earlier this year launched a daily “Political Index” that offers a real-time measurement of users’ feelings about the two candidates. The network says it can track the “semantics” of individual tweets to determine whether they are positive or negative, then assign them a score.

Obama, who counts more than 10 million followers, was tracking at a score of 29 on Tuesday afternoon. The figure means that tweets about Obama were more positive than 29 percent of all other 400 million daily tweets on the site. Romney, with about 1 million followers, trailed with a score of 19.

“We’re measuring in real-time conversations that used to only take place at coffee shops and water coolers,” Adam Sharp, Twitter’s head of government, news and social innovation, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Google’s search data — that is, the names and phrases typed into its powerful search engine — compiled during the two conventions also provides some telling details.

It turns out that the phrase “register to vote” surged after Obama completed his speech on Thursday night. The geography of those searches — that is, the place where they originated — also was revealing. Alabama ranked third among states, behing Utah and Nevada and ahead of Massachusetts and Oklahoma.

Perhaps they were Democrats fired up by Obama’s performance. Perhaps they were Republicans motivated to replace him.

While the Nov. 6 vote is the only number that counts, there’s no disputing the rising influence of social media. On election day 2008, there were 1.8 million tweets. Now, that many tweets are sent every six minutes.

Political editor George Talbot’s column runs Wednesdays. Reach him at 251-219-5623 or gtalbot@press-register.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @georgetalbot.